Folks living in the Delaware Valley, a whole lot of them, think Hunterdon County Weather has a direct line to the weather gods.

The Facebook posts mix science geek with homespun talk. What most of Hunterdon County Weather's more than 7,200 followers may not know is that the reports they've come to not just rely on, but trust, are written by a 21-year-old resident working on the family farm and taking community college classes by day, with the hope of continuing his studies at a university.

On Feb. 10, Bryan Lauber posted: "Polar and subtropical jet streams will phase together, allowing for the system to rapidly develop. The possibility exists for a piece of the polar vortex to phase into the system, adding a third stream of energy. A very large CCB or cold conveyor belt will form over the tri-state area..."

On Feb. 7, before Sunday's snowfall: "If you were expecting a big snowstorm this weekend ... perhaps upwards of 30" thanks to the hype machine ... keep looking elsewhere."

His followers aren't shy about asking pointed questions. With a Feb. 13 storm on the horizon, Facebook followers were anxious about travel plans, asking what it might look like, for instance, for a daughter heading into New York City, or how it might affect flights.

They'll ask if they should keep a business appointment in a neighboring state, plan for a delayed opening at a child's school, or count on a warm day to melt snow off the driveway.

Questions are answered. Whenever possible, Lauber gets specific. "I don't expect ice with this setup" was one response to fears about the upcoming storm.

Lauber, a 2011 Delaware Valley High School graduate, said this week from his family's Alexandria Township farm that he started the Facebook page because he "always felt that the media markets in Philadelphia and New York City never represented our area (Hunterdon) well. They don't know the terrain and how different the weather can be by Route 12 versus Route 78."

He also "wanted to educate people on the weather. Often times people just want the weather and have no clue what is going on. I try to explain the setups for the storms and the process of analyzing models days in advance. It helps give folks the understanding of forecasting and why there can be surprises any given day."

His site has been on a roll this winter. Launched on May 29, 2012, it had attracted 3,000 followers by the start of this past December. This week is had 7,245. He's amazed by the site's success, and thankful for "tremendous" followers.

That online community praises the accuracy of his predictions, and feels that he tells it like it is. Sure, he still uses words like "possibility exists." It is, after all, the weather.

He updates his reports frequently, so followers anticipate more as he becomes more confident about what's happening.

On Monday he said there was "High Confidence For Significant Widespread Snowfall" on Feb. 13, and asked followers to "Please Read Everything Before Asking Questions."

Then he detailed the track of the storm — "south to north during the early morning hours Thursday," and warned that anyone under the CCB (cold conveyor belt) is "looking at 1-3" inches per hour of snow ... "anyone east of Allentown, Pa. is game."

Lauber's day job is working at his "Dad, Uncle, and brother's farm." He recently added a second job working with children after school.

He planned to study meteorology at the University of Oklahoma after graduating from Del Val. Circumstances kept that from happening right away, so he has taken classes at Raritan Valley Community College "as a physics major" and hopes to transfer in the near future to Oklahoma or Rutgers University.

"I self-taught myself a lot of what I know," Lauber said. "I used to be on several forums and learned much from several meteorologists in the business."

Each one "looks at everything a little different than the next one." His favorite book on the subject is "Northeast Snowstorms," by Paul Kocin and Louis Uccellini.

He has tracked storms for much of his young life, saying earlier that his interest was created in part because of the family business. For most of us, poor weather is an inconvenience. For farmers, it can make or break the yearly budget.

Lauber was monitoring Irene from the Milford firehouse when the dam breached, flooding borough streets. As a student of the weather, he was a little disappointed that much of the storm's power had dissipated by the time it came here, but he didn't lose his perspective.

He said at the time, "You want really intense storms for the experience, but when you see the disaster it causes, you don't want any part of that."

Wendy Tinnes on Feb. 7 asked, "Where did you get your weather education? Are you self taught? Or a mere weather genius?!?! No matter ... you are fantastic!!!"

Nicole Hanley took a humorous take on Lauber's accuracy on Feb. 3: "And as always your predictions are spot on! My sister and I are hoping you don't call for a zombie apocalypse anytime soon lol."